Dead Star
by Novacaine98
Summary: A short fic about the relationship between Tara Strong and Josh Mankey. More inside.


Hello to all. This story, along with a few other one shots I have in the works have come to me through the art of music. Way back in September I traveled from my Kentucky home down to Austin, Texas where the yearly music festival ACL is held for one weekend in September. At this festival I saw many a wonderful act but one stood out above the others, Muse. Now I have known of Muse for a few years now and while I like their music, I never really got into them that much until I saw them perform at the festival. They were simply amazing. Since that performance I bought all of their recordings and have listened to them religiously, so much in fact that not only do they have the top six must played songs in my itunes list but also four of those six songs I have listened to at least once a day since that fateful night.

Now some of you may be wondering what this has to do with a KP fan fiction while others may have already realized that this is a songfic and have proceeded to back away. I urge you though to pause for a moment, as you are both right and wrong.

Yes this is a songfic in a sense however it differs from the norm of what one would expect in a songfic. Unlike most songfics, I will not post part of the lyrics, a little bit of story, some more lyrics, some more story and then repeat. The characters will not sing the song to themselves or anyone else either. No instead the lyrics will be posted at the beginning after this brief message. The lyrics are simply there because they were my inspiration for the plot.

I do hope that you will give my story a try and with out further ado here is Muse with Dead Star:

Shame on you

For thinking that you're an exception

We're all to blame

Crashing down to earth

Wasting and burning out, yeah

Fading like a dead star, woo

One is coming your way

Yeah, it's coming your way

You used to be everything to me

But I'm tired of the fighting

Tired of the fighting

Shame on you

For thinking

You're all alone

If you want to make a wish you were(n't)

Failing to impress

Why can't you sleep with

Someone who'll protect you, yeah

One is coming your way

Yeah, it's coming your way

You used to be everything to me

But now I'm tired of the fighting

Tired of the fighting

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Tara Strong sat in her barely furnished apartment staring at the blank cream wall. Only a week ago a beautiful mural had covered the wall, a mural of herself and handsome young painter. Like the wall the rest of the apartment had been decorated with various paintings, art crafts, and matching furniture.

Things though had changed drastically in that past week. Her five-year relationship with the painter of the mural was gone as was most everything in the tiny apartment they had not so long ago shared. He took nearly everything leaving her only with the apartment, simply because her name and not his was on the lease as well as the bed.

He had not been the one to cover the mural with fresh paint. In stead she had done it, never wanting to be reminded of him again. She gave her heart to him and thought that he had given her his but alas she was quite wrong.

Over that past week Tara had been wondering what exactly was wrong with their relationship. Why exactly had he been unfaithful? Why had they been unfaithful?

Tara's heart had been broken before and it had mended but this time was different. She could remember coming home early from work that day eager to spend it with the man she loved. Her joyfulness was short lived as upon entering their home, she could hear the groans of pleasure coming from their bedroom. To have her man cheat on her was one thing but to discover that he was been unfaithful to her with her best friend was something much worse.

She could not remember how long she stood in the doorway to their bedroom, wide-eyed as she watched them go at each other like rabid animals. There was no love there only a primal desire to fulfill basic human needs.

She could remember crying and yelling for them to get out as her former boyfriend attempted to make lame excuses and apologies. It was the words her supposed friend said though that sent Tara into a fury that not even she knew was inside of her.

The voluptuous brunette had just finished dressing, not even bothering with her delicacies, which she had stuffed into her purse when without the slightest remorse, said "if you had just pleased your man this would never have happened."

Her anger now boiling over, Tara started to throw anything and everything she could at the two people she now hated most in this world. Quickly they left and she never saw them again. He would come by the next day while she was at work to clean the apartment out leaving only a note telling her that he had taken everything.

At first the young nurse blamed herself believing that if she had just given him her body instead of stubbornly refusing to wait until marriage that perhaps he wouldn't have strayed. Her friends though quickly set her right, telling her that if he could not respect her wishes to remain pure then he simply did not love her as much as she thought he did.

Tara also quickly realized that this line of reasoning was simply wrong and quickly dismissed it. Still though she longed for a reason as to why the man she thought she would soon marry had forsaken their love.

She did not dwell on the question for long though. For some inexplicable reason she seemed to be able to move on with her life just so long as she was not in the apartment. At work she was just as cheerful as ever and she knew that the smile was not one of forced sincerity. When her real friends pre-empted an anniversary dinner they had to fly back to their childhood home to comfort her she never once cried or even thought about him. They never spoke his name instead they talked of old times. She and Kim had joked about the crush she at one time had on Kim's husband during high school.

It was only when she sat staring at the blank wall that she would dwell upon him. She wondered for how long this would go on. The simple thing would have been to simply leave the apartment but Tara knew that the easy thing to do was not always the right thing to do. Plus there was the little fact that she would have been forced to break her lease, something she could not afford to do.

If you had asked her two weeks ago what the man had meant to her she would say that he was her everything, her Ron, her soul mate. Now though he was simply someone she wished to forget.

She knew that one day the wall would no longer be blank, that she would find something beautiful to place on it and in doing such that she would once again find someone beautiful in her life. She knew this just as she knew that the man who had once been her shooting star was now a dead star.


End file.
